1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a racket structure to be used in tennis and the like rackets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Strung rackets for use in tennis and similar games have long been made from solid wood and strung with gut or nylon strings. The playing characteristics of wood rackets vary greatly due to natural variations in the wood used and manufacturing process variables.
More recently steel and aluminium rackets have been developed in order to obtain greater uniformity. Metal rackets unfortunately will not provide the same playing qualities as wood rackets, since sufficient stiffness cannot be provided without excessive weight.
Lately rackets are also being manufactured from glass fiber reinforced plastics. In order to avoid that these reinforced plastics become too heavy, composite body members of the most variable types have already been proposed in an effort to reduce the weight without losing stiffness. All these previous proposals require complicated molds to produce the several portions to integrate the composite member and special molds for each size and weight, so that the rackets become rather expensive. Typical examples are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,889,951 (Schaefer et al) and 3,949,988 (Staufer), respectively granted on June 17, 1975 and Apr. 13, 1976.